01.11.08

This story out of Dallas is an awful one. The mainstream media has certainly failed their task but so did the local police and social service agencies—at least according to the (still only local) report published yesterday in the Dallas Morning News and picked up today only by Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs.

In 1998, when they were 8 and 9 years-old, these slaughtered girls accused their father of sexual abuse. Their mother swore it was true. The girls then said that they had lied. The authorities believed them.

The same authorities never intervened against this father who, according to unnamed family members, “was given to fits of violence, threats and gun-waving rants about how Western culture was corrupting the chastity of his daughters.”

No one saved these girls, no one stopped the life-long violence against them, no one arrested their father—because he was only violent towards his wife and daughters. He was not violent towards anyone else. He did not disturb the peace. Thus, he was allowed to prey on his own flesh and blood.

We are talking about America, not about Egypt—where Yaser Abdul Said came from and where he may be hiding now. We are talking about America where American feminists have revolutionized our understanding of domestic violence. The police, the judiciary, and social services have tried to keep up—but it is a huge problem. Even feminists have been cautious when it is Muslim men who are domestically violent. Speaking out about it might be seen as “racist.”

Still, there are some real American heroes who have saved Muslim women who were being quite literally tortured. Often, they had to put such victims into federal witness protection programs because nothing else will stop the entire Muslim family from coming after them. I write about this in my most recent book “The Death of Feminism. What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom.”

Yasir Abdul Said was a violent man who used brutal force against his wife and daughters. People in Texas knew about it. People cared about it but no one cared enough—or were willing to risk death by daring to come between a man and his prey. Battered wives who are held hostage long enough are reluctant to press charges, have been too beaten down to feel they can start life on their own; some come to identify with or to serve their tormentors. It is called “Stockholm Syndrome” when the hostages taken are strangers.

Yes, this happens in non-Muslim families all the time and people rarely stop it. Usually, the beaten-down woman is the one who alone finally decides to try and save her own life—or the lives of her children. Often, when wives leave violent men, that’s when they are killed. Or, if they kill in self-defense, the women often get life sentences, often with no parole. I used to know of cases like this in Texas.

According to the Dallas paper, the father, who is still missing, has a long history of family violence. He married his wife, Patricia, when Patricia was only fifteen years old. Patricia’s sister, Connie Moggio, “said his controlling and violent nature gripped the family from the start.” According to Moggio, “once, he shot out the tires on his wife’s car to keep her home.” Another time, he blocked Moggio’s car when she was trying to her Patricia and the children escape. Amina was seen at school with red welts and bruises and she once confided that her father had kicked her in the face. Everyone knew about the threats. He threatened to kill her.

According to the Dallas paper, the day after Christmas the girls ran away—and they ran away with boyfriends who were, perhaps, trying to save them. Their mother talked them into returning; to this day, their brother, Islam, and their mother, Patricia, insist that what happened has nothing to do with Islam (the religion) or with the Arab Middle East (the culture).

Why would anyone in America believe that?

America failed these two daughters, bright with promise. Did we fail them because we don’t care about dark-skinned Muslim (girls)—or because we are so afraid of interfering with any dark-skinned man’s religious and cultural right to subordinate, torture, and ultimately sacrifice “his” women that we choose to look the other way?

Why is the mainstream media still silent? Perhaps if one of the many, many Presidential candidates would comment about this case, the media would follow suit.

Below: Are the links to the Dallas Morning News piece and to Pamela Geller’s website, Atlas Shrugs, which draws upon the local coverage.

Dr. Phyllis Chesler is the well known author of classic works, including the bestseller Women and Madness (1972) and The New Anti-Semitism (2003). She has just published The Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom (Palgrave Macmillan), as well as an updated and revised edition of Women and Madness. She is an Emerita Professor of psychology and women’s studies, the co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969) and the National Women’s Health Network (1974). She is currently on the Board of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and lives in New York City. Her website is www.phyllis-chesler.com.
We are delighted to have Dr. Chesler as a contributor to the Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian’s Blog.

what exactly did you mean by “Why would anyone in America believe that?”

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